There are 2 crowds that like RPGs:

Japanese core gamers (for JRPGs)
Western PC gamers

Outside of that, they're not very common, or casual. I had a very small group of friends that enjoyed JRPGs where I lived (SNES days), and was very rare to converse with people that liked them.

Likewise, PC RPGs were the same way for me - very niche, and not everyone played. With the advent of the internet, hardcore groups (such as RPG gamers) tend to congregate more than you'd think in real life. Fact is, I don't meet a ton of gamers that go ga-ga over Oblivion, Mass Effect, or a JRPG like Star Ocean, or Tales.

@darconi

so your calling me a macho killing machine basically just because i dont care much for jrpg's. oh ya and im american so im even more of a killer. lol get your head out of your ass and how dare you say what type of person i am its people like you who do the stereotyping, and just because i live in america god give me a break you ass!

American gamers are way too obsessed with instant gratification to enjoy RPGs. RPGs are for the most part, for hardcore gamers and not the mainstream audience.

You can do a Japanese-style RPG in a fashion that could appeal to a wider array of people. The main points are to simplify the gameplay enough that it doesn't scare off potential players (but remains deep enough to satisfy the less picky of the dedicated RPG fanbase), format the story progression into relatively short missions or chapters, and give the game an appropriate advertising campaign to reach out to other audiences. I can think of a few JRPGs that did the first two (Legend of Mana, Final Fantasy X-2), many that at least do one of the three, but none that have done all three points.

I love how M$ is diversifying their line-up. They are really being good to 360 gamers.

Indeed. The only RPGs I have ever played are Pokemon, KOTOR, KOTOR 2, Mass Effect, and WoW. It's hard for me to get into any JRPG other than Pokemon simply because the battles take so damn long.

RPG's have always been fairly difficult for a lot of people to get into. Things like platformers are generally simpler and more approachable. Final Fantasy is one of the few to have made it outside of Japan, but most struggle to do that.

My gripe about RPGs (although I have only played JRPGs so far) is the battle system. For some reason, it's the most boring part of all the JRPGs so far for me. Usually, I find myself being able to win through using just certain skills, and not worrying at all about the rest, or simply use the rest very little.

That said though, I don't consider myself knowing how to play JRPGs at all, and I should probably have to see a JRPG fan playing the games to understand the fun of the genre.

Currently, I'm playing Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 FES. Everything has been fantastic except for... the battle, which is considerably better than other JRPGs' I have played.

Unless I somehow change, probably the only JRPG I will be able to get into is action-based. I have only played two of that kind. Children of Mana on NDS and Kingdom Heart 2 on the PS2. The latter is a lot better than the former, although both got repetitive after a while. Furthermore, the stories in both are pretty average (the former's story sucks, and in Kingdom Heart 2, I didn't find Disney stories particularly interesting). That said, though, Kingdom Heart 2 was pretty fun. But, if I have to sum up, no JRPGs have left a big impression on me yet.

I rarely ever play RPG's

the only ones i'm interested in are Oblivion and maybe Fable 2.

i liked folklore but is that a more westernized rpg can someone who knows about rpg's tell me